With February being a shortened month, I didn’t get a chance to post this one yet and having a cold hasn’t helped.
384 pages Publisher Ballantine Books Publication date April 1, 2025
ABOUT THE BOOK
WINNER OF THE BLACK CAUCUS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S FIRST NOVELIST AWARD • BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, She Reads
Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.
Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.
A compelling story of three black women on different paths in their freedom journey. Richly woven historical fiction about a time, pre-civil war Philadelphia where freedom had been won. But why wasn’t everyone treated as if it was? The ignorance and behavior from my home state is shocking. The struggle to right a wrong, slavery kept these characters struggling while look towards that glimpse of hope. The path is carved out towards freedom.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Ashton Lattimore is an award-winning author, journalist, and former lawyer. Her debut novel, All We Were Promised, won the First Novelist Award for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Lattimore’s journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, CNN, Essence, and Prism, where she was editor-in-chief until 2024. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons.
304 pages Publisher St. Martin’s Griffin Publication date
January 24, 2023
ABOUT THE BOOK
Little Caribbean, Brooklyn, New Lyndsay Murray is opening Spice Isle Bakery with her family, and it’s everything she’s ever wanted. The West Indian bakery is her way to give back to the community she loves, stay connected to her Grenadian roots, and work side-by-side with her family. The only thing getting a rise out of Lyndsay is Claudio Fabrizi, a disgruntled fellow bakery owner who does not want any competition. On opening day, he comes into the bakery threatening to shut them down. Fed up, Lyndsay takes him to task in front of what seems to be the whole neighborhood. So when Claudio turns up dead a day later?murdered?Lyndsay is unfortunately the prime suspect. To get the scent of suspicion off her and her bakery, she has to prove she’s innocent?under the watchful eyes of her overprotective brother, anxious parents, and meddlesome extended family. What could go wrong?
MY THOUGHTS
The start of a brand-new cozy mystery series. First let’s start off by saying the titles of these cozies are just so clever. A new woman owned business (with help from her family) opens in Little Caribbean, Brooklyn, New York. I loved seeing how this family comes together, especially Grandma to keep their culture connected to their Grenadian roots. The West Indian bakery is a way to stay connected to the neighborhood and everyone in the neighborhood is excited for its upcoming opening. The line is long on opening morning and every morning after. Everyone is happy except for another local baker who is worried about the competition and tells her to back off. When her reply is seen as a threat and then he winds up dead shortly after this young entrepreneur is prime suspect number one. Sleuthing and baking seem to go hand in hand for a while as the case gets solved. I enjoyed seeing the closeness of the family and the delicious foods and cultures being talked about in the book. Entertaining read. Delicious sounding recipes included.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Olivia Matthews is the cozy mystery pseudonym for national best-selling and award-winning author Patricia Sargeant.
Patricia’s work has been featured in national publications such as Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Kirkus Reviews, Suspense Magazine, Mystery Scene Magazine, Library Journal and RT Book Reviews. She’s also been interviewed on podcasts including Destination Mystery with Laura Brennan, Conversations LIVE! with Cyrus Webb, Read You Later with Lasheera Lee and Katara’s Café with Katara Johnson.
Patricia has been a keynote speaker and presenter at various events. She’s conducted numerous writing craft workshops for writers groups and book conferences, and offers online fiction writing courses through her The Write Spot website. To contact Patricia about attending your event, email her at BooksByPatricia@yahoo.com.
303 pages Publisher Lake Union Publishing Publication date August 30, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
In a deeply emotional novel of family, cultural heritage, and forgiveness, estranged sisters wrestle with the choices they’ve made and confront circumstances beyond their control.
Nona “Peaches” Davenport, abandoned by the man she loved and betrayed by family, left her Natchez, Mississippi, home fifteen years ago and never looked back. She’s forged a promising future in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Nona even finds her once-closed heart persuaded by a new love. But that’s all shaken when her father’s death forces her to return to everything she’s tried to forget.
Julia Curtis hasn’t forgiven her sister for deserting the family. Just like their mother, Nona walked away from Julia when she needed her most. And Julia doesn’t feel guilty for turning to Nona’s old flame, Marcus, for comfort. He helped Julia build a new life. She has a child, a career, and a determination to move on from old family wounds.
Upon Nona’s return to Natchez, a cautious reunion unfolds, and everything Nona and Julia thought they knew—about themselves, each other, and those they loved—will be tested. Unpacking the truth about why Nona left may finally heal their frayed bond—or tear it apart again, forever.
MY THOUGHTS
Nona “Peaches” Davenport has grown up, moved on and has no need for her family in Natchez, Mississippi. She knows she has all her stuff together living in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Having not been to see any of her family in fifteen years she’s satisfied to keep it that way but then she’s notified her father has passed away. Returning means, she can no longer hide from the past, she must confront it and head on. It’s not easy, it’s bitter many times. She deeply regrets not having visited her grandma these past years. As she returns the feeling of betrayal rears its head and the more, she finds out the harder it gets but confront the past she must. Seeing and knowing isn’t easy. A sense of betrayal but regained closeness and forgiveness make this a worthwhile read.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Cade Bentley is a novelist and editor who is also published as Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Abby L. Vandiver, as well as Abby Colette. When she isn’t writing, Cade enjoys spending time with her grandchildren. She resides in South Euclid, Ohio. For more information visit http://www.authorabby.com.
278 pages Publisher Regal House Publishing Pub Date Feb 06 2024
ABOUT THE BOOK
In a bleak Mississippi farmhouse in 1918, Leona Pinson gives birth to an illegitimate son whose father she refuses to name, but who will, she is convinced, return from the war to rescue her from a hardscrabble life with a distant mother, a dangerous brother, and a dwarf aunt. When, instead, her lover returns with a wife in tow, her dreams are shattered. As her brother’ s violence escalates and her aunt flees, Leona must rely on the help of Luther Biggs, the son of Leona’ s grandfather and one of his former slaves, to protect her child. Told against the backdrop of the deprivation of World War I, the tragedies of the influenza epidemic, and the burden of generations of betrayal, That Pinson Girl unfolds in lyrical, unflinching prose, engaging the timeless issues of racism, sexism, and poverty.
MY THOUGHTS
An amazing book written by an author that lives in the area she writes about so she’s familiar with the area. A southern very atmospheric book. Life was so much harder back then but that was their normal, they kept going. Taking place in rural Mississippi, it covers many social issues taking place back then including racism. I will be checking to see if the author has a new book out.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Gerry Wilson’s linked story collection, STORM WARNING, is forthcoming from Silent Clamor Press in October 2026. Her debut novel, THAT PINSON GIRL, was published by Regal House Publishing in 2024. Her first fiction collection, CROSSCURRENTS AND OTHER STORIES (Press 53, 2015), was nominated for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award.
A seventh-generation Mississippian and a child of the hill country she writes about in THAT PINSON GIRL, Gerry Wilson came of age during the turbulent civil rights era. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous journals.
350 pages Publisher Amistad Publication date April 12, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
Combining the haunting power of Toni Morrison’s Beloved with the evocative atmosphere of Phillippa Gregory’s A Respectable Trade, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s groundbreaking novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history—the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade—witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves.
A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity.
Readers are invited to join Pola in her journey to healing. From the sadistic barbarity of her first experiences, she moves on to receive compassion and support from a revitalizing new community. Along the way, she learns to recognize and embrace the many faces of love—a mother’s love, a daughter’s love, a sister’s love, a love of community, and the self-love that she must recover before she can offer herself to another. It is ultimately, a novel of the triumph of the human spirit even under the most brutal of conditions.
MY THOUGHTS
Quite heartbreaking and emotional read. An African woman is kidnapped and brought to Puerto Rico as a breeder slave. Babies taken as soon as they are born. This is the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade, a little-known time in history and not what we think of when we hear the word slavery. A hard read but it’s so important that attention is brought to this terrible time.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
424 pages Publisher Tyndale Fiction Publication date July 19, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
From award-winning author Robin W. Pearson comes a new Southern family drama about one family who discovers their history is only skin-deep and that God’s love is the only family tie that binds. Paulette and Fred Baldwin find themselves wading through a new season of life in Hickory Grove, North Carolina. Their only son, McKinley, now works hundreds of miles away, and the distance between the husband and wife feels even farther. When their son returns home, his visit dredges up even more conflict between Fred and Paulette. McKinley makes it no secret that he doesn’t intend to follow in his father’s footsteps at George & Company Fine Furnishings or otherwise. Fred can’t quite bring himself to accept all his son’s choices, yet Paulette is determined McKinley will want for nothing, least of all a mother’s love and attention—which her own skin color cost her as a child. But all her striving leaves Fred on the outside looking in. Paulette suspects McKinley and Fred are hiding something that could change the whole family. Soon, she’s facing a whirlwind she never saw coming, and the three of them must dig deep to confront the truth. Maybe then they’ll discover that their history is only skin-deep while their faith can take them right to the heart of things.
MY THOUGHTS
The premise sounded interesting. I enjoy reding books about Southern fiction with some drama thrown in. Good plot and characters.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
384 pages Publisher Harper Muse Publication date July 5, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
As 1947 opens, Eva Cardon is the twenty-four-year-old owner of Washington, D.C.’s, most famous Black-owned restaurant. When her path crosses with Courtland, a handsome white senator from Georgia, both find themselves drawn to one another—but the danger of a relationship between a Black woman and a white man from the South could destroy them and everything they’ve worked for.
Few women own upscale restaurants in civil rights era Washington, D.C. Fewer still are twenty-four, Black, and wildly successful. But Eva Cardon is unwilling to serve only the wealthiest movers and shakers, and she plans to open a diner that offers Southern comfort to the working class.
A war hero and one of Georgia’s native sons, Courtland Hardiman Kingsley IV is a junior senator with great ambitions for his time in D.C. But while his father is determined to see Courtland on a path to the White House, the young senator wants to use his office to make a difference in people’s lives, regardless of political consequences.
When equal-rights activism throws Eva and Courtland into each other’s paths, they can’t fight the attraction they feel, no matter how much it complicates their dreams. For Eva, falling in love with a white Southerner is all but unforgivable—and undesirable. Her mother and grandmother fell in love with white men, and their families paid the price. Courtland is already under pressure for his liberal ideals, and his family has a line of smiling debutantes waiting for him on every visit. If his father found out about Eva, he’s not sure he’d be welcome home again.
Surrounded by the disapproval of their families and the scorn of the public, Eva and Courtland must decide if the values they hold most dear—including love—are worth the loss of their dreams . . . and everything else.
The author of When Stars Rain Down returns with a historical love story about all that has—and has not—changed in the United States
Historical romance set in civil rights era Washington, D.C.
Stand-alone novel
Book length: approximately 120,000 words
Includes discussion questions for book clubs
MY THOUGHTS
I’d give this more than five stars if I could, I just loved it. I could barely put it down. It started out with a fiercely independent black woman. She owns one of the most prestigious D.C. restaurants in 1947. At a New Years party there she meets a white politician from Georgia. This turns into a forbidden romance that people on both sides try to dissuade each other from this romance. This junior senator has high ambitions in D.C., and his father in his mind, already has him married off to one of the smiling white women and taking his first steps towards the presidency. Falling in love with a white man is an unforgivable sin in her family’s eyes. Her mother and grandmother both did and the results weren’t favorable. In this civil rights era novel, we see threats both verbal and physical aimed at the public’s displeasure of the relationship. They must decide if them being together is worth possibly losing everything they hold dear or to let the chance at strength, compassion and not giving in to others wishes is worth it. Fabulous read but heartbreaking. Will not easily be forgotten.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Angela Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who is an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN and a member of the graduate faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, KY.
Angela is a graduate of Troy University, Auburn University, and the Spalding low-residency MFA program in creative writing. She has published her short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in journals like the Louisville Courier Journal and Appalachian Review. She is the author of Drinking from a Bitter Cup, House Repairs, When Stars Rain Down, and The Light Always Breaks.
I hope your day is going well. Thank you for stopping in.
413 pages Publisher Amistad Publication date February 8, 2022
The author of the award-winning Sally Hemings now brings to life Hannah Elias, one of the richest black women in America in the early 1900s, in this mesmerizing novel swirling with atmosphere and steeped in history.
A murder and a case of mistaken identity brings the police to Hannah Elias’ glitzy, five-story, twenty-room mansion on Central Park West. This is the beginning of an odyssey that moves back and forth in time and reveals the dangerous secrets of a mysterious woman, the fortune she built, and her precipitous fall. Born in Philadelphia in the late 1800s, Hannah Elias has done things she’s not proud of to survive. Shedding her past, Hannah slips on a new identity before relocating to New York City to become as rich as a robber baron. Hannah quietly invests in the stock market, growing her fortune with the help of businessmen. As the money pours in, Hannah hides her millions across 29 banks. Finally attaining the life she’s always dreamed, she buys a mansion on the Upper West Side and decorates it in gold and first-rate décor, inspired by her idol Cleopatra. The unsolved murder turns Hannah’s world upside-down and threatens to destroy everything she’s built. When the truth of her identity is uncovered, thousands of protestors gather in front of her stately home. Hounded by the salacious press, the very private Mrs. Elias finds herself alone, ensnared in a scandalous trial, and accused of stealing her fortune from whites. Packed with glamour, suspense, and drama, populated with real-life luminaries from the period, The Great Mrs. Elias brings a fascinating woman and the age she embodied to glorious, tragic life.
MY THOUGHTS
Extensively researched, the fascinating and compelling read based on the life of Hannah Elias. Her life started out with a humble and poor background with mixed race parentage. Born in Philadelphia in the late 1800’s she’s done some things she’s not proud of, things she’d rather forget, and she assures herself she’ll never return to jail again but she does several more times. Living in the poorhouse she vows to do whatever it takes to get out. She turns to the world’s oldest profession and becomes a highly paid sex worker. She climbs the ranks and has some very high paying callers. Wickedly smart she listens when she is told how to invest her money and becomes the richest black woman in the world at that time period. From buying a boarding house to many prime New York prestigious real estates including luxurious mansions she is set. Until the day the bottom drops out there is a murder outside of her door and she is being taken to court for supposed blackmail. She is being accused of blackmailing her 84-year-old white lover and we see this play out in court. Before this though the warrant for her arrest has a mob at her door crying for her to turn herself in. We feel her terror as her door is broken down near midnight. It’s all spectacularly played out, the glamour, the rise and fall from power, wealth and drama. An addictive read that kept my attention throughout.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Barbara Chase-Riboud (born June 26, 1939) is an American visual artist, bestselling novelist and award-winning poet.
Established as a sculptor, Chase-Riboud attained international recognition with the publication of her first novel, Sally Hemings (1979)
Things Past Telling is a remarkable historical epic that charts one unforgettable woman’s journey across an ocean of years as vast as the Atlantic that will forever separate her from her homeland.
Born in West Africa in the mid-eighteenth century, Maryam Prescilla Grace—a.k.a “Momma Grace” will live a long, wondrous life marked by hardship, oppression, opportunity, and love. Though she will be “gifted” various names, her birth name is known to her alone. Over the course of 100-plus years, she survives capture, enslavement by several property owners, the Atlantic crossing when she is only eleven years of age, and a brief stint as a pirate’s ward, acting as both a spy and a translator.
Maryam learns midwifery from a Caribbean-born wise woman, whose “craft” combines curated techniques and medicines from African, Indigenous, and European women. Those midwifery skills allow her to sometimes transcend the racial and class barriers of her enslavement, as she walks the razor’s edge trying to balance the lives and health of her own people with the cruel economic mandates of the slave holders, who view infants born in bondage not as flesh-and-blood children but as investment property.
Throughout her triumphant and tumultuous life Maryam gains and loses her homeland, her family, her culture, her husband, her lovers, and her children. Yet as the decades pass, this tenacious woman never loses her sense of self.
Inspired by a 112-year-old woman the author discovered in an 1870 U.S. Federal census report for Ohio, loosely based on the author’s real-life female ancestors, spanning more than a hundred years, from the mid-eighteen-century to the end of America’s Civil War, and spanning across the globe, from what is now southern Nigeria to the islands of the Caribbean to North America and the land bordering the Ohio River, Things Past Telling is a breathtaking story of a past that lives on in all of us, and a life that encompasses the best—and worst—of our humanity.
MY THOUGHTS
This is Maryam Prescilla Grace—a.k.a “Momma Grace” ‘s story all 112 years of it. It starts at the end of her life, and goes through her life as she reminisces winding up back at the end again. Very character driven. A young child forced to grow up way before her time, you could never say she had an easy life but smart as could be she adapted to whatever life presented to her. She had a choice, be weak, soft, an easy target or not. She didn’t take the easy way in life as she was a survivor. Kidnapped from her African homeland forced to make an Atlantic crossing at only eleven years old. A voyage that saw the death of her sister, her protector. Enslaved by several masters, a wise woman taught her the midwifery skill that would have her in high demand for the rest of her life. A skill that would take her from being sure she couldn’t do it to being highly skilled and respected amongst the blacks and whites alike. No stranger to hardships and personal loss she sees loved ones sold away and pass on. Strength and resilience, the best and the worst of humanity as the story is played out. Loosely based on the life of an amazing woman and her family the author found through her research Excellent and highly recommended!
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Sheila Williams is the award-winning author of several acclaimed novels, including No Better Time, Things Past Telling, The Secret Women, Girls Most Likely, The Shade of My Own Tree, On the Right Side of a Dream, and Dancing on the Edge of the Roof—the inspiration for the Netflix film Juanita, starring Alfre Woodard.
Her most recent novel, No Better Time, is an engrossing historical tale that shines a light on the little-known story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion—the only unit comprised entirely of women of color to serve overseas during World War II. The book was named a February 2024 “Books We Can’t Wait to Read” pick by The Root, a Black History Month selection by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and a BookSparks Book Club pick.
Williams’s 2022 novel Things Past Telling was a New York Times Book Review Summer Reading Pick and a Washington Post “10 Noteworthy Books for March” selection. It also earned spots on Bookworm’s Best Books of 2022 list and Book-ish’s “Books by Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read.”
Her previous novel, The Secret Women, was featured as a top beach read by TIME, Woman’s World, Parade, and more in the summer of 2020.
In addition to her fiction, Sheila Williams is also a librettist. Fierce, her original opera created in collaboration with composer Dr. William Menefield, made its world premiere at Cincinnati Opera in July 2022. Inspired by the lives of Cincinnati-area teenage girls, the production was developed with community partners WordPlay Cincy, The Music Resource Center–Cincinnati, and i.imagine.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Sheila now lives in northern Kentucky. She continues to write stories that explore the complexities of identity, resilience, sisterhood, and self-discovery.
322 pages Bookouture publisher 06 Sep 2022 publish date
ABOUT THE BOOK
New Hampshire, 1796. “My name is Ona Judge, and I escaped from the household of the President of the United States. I was the favored maid of George and Martha Washington, but they deemed me a slave and thought me property, and I hear ten dollars is offered as reward for my capture. Now I must write the truth that I have lived, and tell my story…”
Chincoteague, Virginia, present day. Rain soaks Tessa Scott as she runs from her car to the old, vine-covered property she has been called to survey. She’s too busy to accept a new job, but doing this favor for the grandmother of her childhood sweetheart delays a painful decision she must make about a future with her controlling boyfriend.
But when Tessa finds a tattered journal carefully hidden inside the house’s ancient fireplace, the tragic story of how Ona was ripped from her mother’s arms to live and work in the palatial Mount Vernon, and the heart-shattering betrayal that led her to risk her life and run, has Tessa spellbound. Could discovering this forgotten scandal at the heart of her nation’s history force her to confront her own story? As she races to reach the final page, will anything prepare her for the desperate moment when Ona’s captors find her again? Will it inspire Tessa to take ownership of her own life and set herself free?
MY THOUGHTS
This will be my last book I read this month for Black History month. I’ve read some incredible books this month for it, and this is one of them. The book is so well researched, the author vividly brings Ona Judge’s story to life.
This wonderful book honor’s Ona Judge, a black woman born into slavery, as she became old enough, she was the Lady’s Maid to Martha Washington, President of the United States wife. Even amongst the slaves there is a pecking order. When she displaced a slave a few years older than herself to become the president’s wife’s personal maid there was jealousy, threats and bodily harm done to herself.
The book follows the daily life of Ona as she is at Washington’s home Mount Vernon, always on call as a lady’s maid, following every whim Matha has and even having to bow down and answer to the grandchildren of Martha that were younger than her. It was disheartening to see the violent behavior the slaves were subject to in Washington’s care. Though most tried to please you couldn’t defend yourself with words and had to demurely keep the eyes lowered and heaven help you if you were learning to read or write. This was punishable by beating to death.
Having more than her fill Ona Judge makes an escape to freedom but will she be caught, and freedom taken away?
This dual timeline has in modern times Tessa Scott in Chincoteague, Virginia, surveying a property of the grandmother of an old boyfriend as a favor. Ready to leave she spots an old diary stuck in the fireplace and she grabs it to look at later.
Upon further inspection she realizes it’s details of Ona Judge’s life, her struggles and ultimate betrayal. The book gives her the courage to find the help she needs to leave a controlling relationship. The book fascinatingly is based on actual people and events and gives the respect and honor Ona Judge deserved.
Pub Date 06 Sep 2022 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Suzette D. Harrison, a native Californian and the middle of three daughters, grew up in a home where reading was required, not requested. Her literary “career” began in junior high school with the publishing of her poetry. While Mrs. Harrison pays homage to Alex Haley, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, and Toni Morrison as legends who inspired her creativity, it was Dr. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings that unleashed her writing. Harrison prefers happy endings, but loves creating flawed characters and storylines with intricate layers and depth, offering readers unexpected plot twists. The award-winning author of Taffy is a wife and mother who holds a culinary degree in Pastry & Baking. Mrs. Harrison is currently cooking up her next novel…in between batches of cupcakes.
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567 pages HarperVia publisher November 22,2022 publish date
ABOUT THE BOOK
Set in 1920s New York, an addictively readable, thoroughly entertaining historical novel involving sex and secrets, race and redemption, and power and privilege—based on a sensational real-life case that made international headlines—in which the marriage between a working-class black woman and the scion of one of America’s most powerful white families ends in a scandalous annulment lawsuit.
When Alice Jones, a blue-color woman with at least one Black parent marries Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander, the son of one of New York’s most prominent society families, the scandal rocks high society—and eventually sets the city afire when Kip later sues for an annulment, accusing Alice of having hidden her “Negro blood” and intentionally deceiving him that she was white.
While New York society in the Roaring Twenties witnessed more than a few scandals, the real-life Rhinelander case set tongues wagging and became perhaps the most examined interracial relationship in American history. In Defending Alice, Richard Stratton reimagines this remarkable story, from the couple’s courtship through their controversial marriage to their shocking divorce trial and its aftermath. Chronicled by Alice’s attorney, brilliant trial lawyer Lee Parsons Davis, and told in flashbacks and entries from Alice and Kip’s fictional personal diaries, this epic page-turner vividly brings to life the New York of a century ago—a world seemingly far removed yet tragically familiar to our own.
Stratton brilliantly evokes this dazzling era in all its glamour and excess, and in retelling the Rhinelander story, explores issues of sex, race, class, prejudice, and justice that are as relevant today as they were a century ago when this headline-making trial took place.
MY THOUGHTS
Defending Alice is a historical fiction book I’ve read based on actual events and people. Chronicled by Alice’s attorney, trial lawyer Lee Parsons Davis, taking place during the Roaring 20’s when interracial marriages weren’t as accepted as today.
Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander comes from a high-class New York upper crust high society family and is white. Alice Jones is a working woman and their relationship set the tongues to wagging and caused a scandal. Kip is perceived as a weak individual unable to stand up to his father who wants the marriage annulled immediately.
According to the father Kip was seduced into the marriage having no experience with women by a woman who passed as white but didn’t tell him of her mixed-race blood. Alice claims she did not hide the fact she has at least one black parent and the couple is in love.
The grounds for annulment were Alice married into this prominent family for the money and social standing she would receive with the marriage. What follows is flashbacks of the couple’s relationship and the long trial case. As you can imagine the trial drags on and on with Alice’s name being drawn through the mud and her spineless husband not sticking up for himself or his wife.
Sex, lies, prejudice, race and class, just as relevant today as they were back nearly a century ago when this trial took place figure prominently into the story.
Pub Date 22 Nov 2022 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Stratton is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. His feature film work includes writing and producing Slam, which won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance and the Camera d’Or at Cannes. Stratton also wrote and produced Whiteboyz for Fox Searchlight. He recently completed an adaptation of the non-fiction bestseller Facing the Wind.
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